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Interesting News (3/10/13)

There’s just a whole lot: the EU attempts to ban “pornography” (what’s “pornography”?), more sex-gender-sexuality stew, and more uniformed shade thrown on an area of sexuality and lifestyle… just another day on the interwebs, I guess. Enjoy!!

A report that will be voted on in the European Union parliament March 12 could lay the groundwork for laws banning pornography across all media — including the Internet — and could potentially restrict civil liberties, free speech advocates claim.

The broader aim of the sweeping proposal, which was introduced by left-leaning parliamentarian Kartika Liotard of the Netherlands, is to foster gender equality in the EU by combatting gender stereotypes on many fronts. To that end, the opinion recommends a “ban all forms of pornography in the media,” including what it calls “the digital field.”

It also calls for the establishment of regulatory agencies with “a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls.” (sic, here)

“Banning pornography”? But what constitutes “pornography”?

Though I agree with finding effective ways to minimize the sexualization of minor-aged girls, I somehow doubt this is the way to do it. In fact, I kinda feel like a good thing (minimizing the sexualization of minor-aged girls) is being thrown in with this whole “banning ‘pornography'” thing as a kind of double-barreled trick…

Fallon Fox, who was assigned male at birth and was subsequently gendered boy/man/masculine, recently discussed her trans identity with Outsports.

[Fallon] tells [interviewer Cyd Zeigler] she underwent gender reassignment surgery (along with the supplemental hormonal therapy) six years ago, several years after her father — who was convinced she was a confused gay man — put her in conversion therapy where, she notes, she was treated by a reparative therapist who tried to convince her that she was, in fact, gay so that he could turn her into a heterosexual man. (here)

Fallon’s fighting license is now under investigation with Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation.

I notice two things just from these bits about Fallon. First, our society’s perpetual commitment to interchanging, conflating, and confusing sex (male, female, etc), gender (man, woman, etc), and sexuality (what kinds of sexy things you want/like and how those things impact your social and psychological lives) as evidenced by Fallon’s father’s desire to put his daughter through conversion therapy, etc. Really?

Second, an increased… though perhaps just increasingly visible… preoccupation with physical sex in categorization and classification. But, however, as I write this, I know that this is neither nothing new nor nothing increased at all. We’ve been categorizing people on the basis of genitalia (regardless of gender and sexuality) since the dawn of time…

They’ve got it wrong. They’ve got it so far wrong that frankly, their authors are making public fools of themselves, if nothing else than for sheer factual error, but also because of a remarkable failure to demonstrate even the most basic ability to construct a logical argument. Beyond that, they’ve been published on otherwise relatively well-regarded websites, which indicates a failure of clear thought along two entire publishing chains of command, and this makes me seriously raise an eyebrow at their editors. If this is the level of discourse that writers are engaging in, in 2013, when the topic of sadomasochism comes up, I fear we are about to descend back into a blow-by-blow replay of the 1980s Sex Wars, except played out on the interwebs among much bigger “armies” than the diminutive, if vociferous, ranks of radical feminists. (here)

I feel ya, Andrea… and, just as an aside, I feel this way every time Gail Dines opens her mouth. Thanks to Charlie Glickman for sharing this bit with me :)